MAX WHITLOCK: I've proved myself as an all-round gymnast... now for gold in Rio!

Max Whitlock reflects on his recent success at the European Championships in Moscow.

To get a complete set of medals at the European Champions last weekend, with gold, silver and a bronze, was brilliant. I got the Floor gold, All-round silver and bronze in the Pommel Horse.

It was the first time I’ve been picked as an all-rounder in a major competition so I really wanted to try and give a good performance and prove myself as an all-rounder. That’s a massive hope for me to go and do that now. After the Olympics I wanted to become an all-round gymnast and show I could do it.

Every gymnast is different. A lot of people specialise on a specific piece but I think getting an all-round title is the top, so that’s what I’ll really try and aim for from now on.

Main man: Max Whitlock (left) shared gold with Alexander Shatilov in the floor competition in Moscow

The Europeans started out with qualification. That was one of the most important competitions out of the whole thing because we had to get through that to qualify for individual pieces and for the final.

I managed to qualify in first place, so that obviously felt good going into the final with those scores. Two days later it was the all-round final and I came second overall to get the silver.

After that the individual apparatus finals were done over two days with three pieces on each one, though I only competed on the first day. But that was when I managed to get my gold in the floor and bronze on the pommel horse. It was a pretty good few days.

The arena in Moscow was absolutely massive and the crowd was good. It got more packed out and the audience were a bit better in the final. It’s the first time I’ve been to Russia, so it was a bit different, a really busy country.

But we didn’t get to see too much of it. We literally went from the room, to the gym, then back to the room. But it was a good experience, though it was hotter than we thought. I brought all these coats, scarves and gloves expecting it to be about -10C. When we got out there it was so hot I was wearing shorts every day.

My family wanted to come out and watch, but we didn’t know what Russia was like, because none of us have ever been there before, so we decided to leave it and they followed it on the internet. But the audience were actually quite good at supporting everyone, which was good.

My family and girlfriend texted me straight after the competition, which was really good. They were able to stream some of it live and they were all really proud. After the competition I was on Twitter for about an hour just looking at my feed at everyone congratulating me. The support’s been crazy. It’s really good.

Since competing at the Olympics, there’s been a lot more pressure because of what we did there winning the team bronze. I feel like I have to live up to a bit of expectation and what people think that I can do. This year was different to the Olympics and different to the other Europeans that I’ve done because this was all about the individual finals and apparatus finals. It was a really good competition.

Head over heels: Whitlock won a complete set of medals at the European Championships in Russia

The atmosphere among the British gymnasts was good, it’s always really good. We’ve been training together since we were eight years old so we’re all really good friends and a good team. It helps to really spur us on in competitions and because I finished a day earlier than everyone else in Moscow, it was nice to go and watch the others. It was a really good performance by everyone and that really made the trip.

Our new training regime has really worked for us. We’ve worked a lot on building our stamina so when you do something new like that it’s a really good feeling when it pays off. We’ve clearly done a really good build up. We’ll build up for the next competition in a few and probably do pretty similar stuff to what we did for this one. If something works you try and do it the same for other competitions. Obviously this one was a really good help for me and I was ready for the competition.

Double delight: Whitlock won bronze on the pommel horse while team-mate Daniel Keatings took gold

I’ve got a few months off competitions now, so hopefully I’ll just be training and learning new skills to put in my routines so I’ll have some new ones and trying to up my scores a bit. When I come back into it, the next big event for us is the World Championships at the end of the year in Belgium. That’s the big one. I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully I can get picked for an all-round spot there. That’s my target.

Though this was a great weekend and I’m really proud of my success, winning bronze at the Olympics was still the highlight of my career. That competition was one of a kind, an unforgettable competition. I don’t think that any competition will ever live up to that one.

Though, if I could get a gold at Rio, I think that would just about manage to top it.

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